Dear Kids,

        The very first days of any project are completely devoted to absorbing information.

        In this case the research is for both the marketing and the product. Some ideas already came to mind but I was now on the alert for anything that helps me give them a quality product.

        I went to the newsstand and bought the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Investors Business Daily. I am reading magazines like the Economist and Newsweek too. A very cool part of this project is I actually do love to follow markets.

        Next, I took them to one of my writing spots. Grandpa and I always had an affinity for libraries and I chose the Beverly Hills Library to work in peace. We both like the ambiance of libraries. They are clean, quiet and well lit. Plus, everyone is in a work mode and it is hard not to start working when the whole room is full of people are working.

        Also, the library has nice large tables which are great for laying out newspapers or anything you need to work with. The library was also a convenient place to be if you had a sudden need of a stat or some other fact.

        Due to grandpa, I grew up researching things in libraries and those skills really help even with online research. This is why I take you guys to the library often.

        So I trotted over to the library. I took the basic tools of the trade, a highlighter, pen and pad of paper with me along with the newspapers and magazines. You can read the newspapers in the library but the librarians get bent out of shape when you start tearing out articles.

        Once settled in, I scanned the pages of the newspapers and magazines for anything that got my interest.

        If I read anything that does grab my attention, I tear it out of the magazine or paper and use my highlighter to mark what is interesting to me. For those who are true fans of grandpa, he did not highlight the exact lines. I do so because later I don't want to slow down my creative mental juices by looking for why I saved something. It was easier for him to keep on a creative roll.

        I then put all of my clippings in the same old red fodder box grandpa used. This is one of my favorite possessions. Here is a picture of it for the shitweasels (truly devoted fans). I know you two see it in the house all the time.

Foddor Box	Foddor	Rough Ad

        Now it was time to make notes. Grandpa would once again sit down and skim over the fodder and make what he called nugget notes and they were basically any idea, headline, phrase or anything that might be added to the ad or letter you are going to write.

        Here I saved the nugget notes from this promotion so you could see how the highlighted news clippings helped add to the ideas I had for the ad.

        During this process, you will come up with other thoughts and you should write every single one of them down. The whole point here is to have so many great points or ideas that you have a hard time deciding which few to use because there isn't space for them all.

        Good writers always start by writing a lot and then cutting down a lot. This is the part of the process where you want to write down as many ideas as possible. If you are lucky, you may have a group of pals to brainstorm with, but it is very unlikely until you have employees you can force to focus.

        I have your uncle and John and many people to bounce ideas off of, but I still can't get them all together whenever I want. However, when you do get marketing minds together and they are all thinking about the same project, the ideas flow and one good idea sparks an even better one by someone else and so forth. Group brainstorming is great.

        Until your ad or website or sales letter is done, you should continue to write down any additional thoughts you have.

        Once all the nugget notes are ready, it is laundry time. I actually don't do laundry, but grandpa did and more importantly, when he talked about this period of the ad writing process, he always used laundry. This is the time when you should read all of your nugget notes and fill your brain with all that good info and then go do something mundane such as laundry. I like to walk. It gets the blood flowing and walking always gives you a sense of progress even if you have no destination.

        Pop said he would usually experience what he would call an aha moment. He would say "AHA! I got it" he would snap his fingers and then he was off to write down his ideas. More often than not his aha moments came before his nugget notes and you will have no control over when or where they will come other than to maximize your chances by eating, breathing and living your project.

        I will do this for the next few days.

        Peace be with you my little ones,

        Pop